Looking from Canada to the United States, across Niagara's Horseshoe Falls

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Jim Bradley Liberal Fan Club

David M. Haskell wrote in "Sun TV News a move in the right direction" (Toronto Sun, Jun.29, 2010, here):

"Since Quebecor's Pierre Karl Peladeau announced his company would be launching Sun TV News an English-language all-news channel that privileges small "c" conservative perspectives pundits have been debating the need for such an entity. They've been bolstering their position by referencing the state of Canadian media today. The pro group claims, in the main, a left-wing bias exists; particularly, when it comes to television news. Sun TV News is a needed corrective. The latter insist fairness, balance and objectivity are, in large part, the order of the day. As someone who studies media bias in Canada, what surprised me the most about the debate has been the absence of empirical data. Some commentators have even suggested valid research on the topic doesn't exist. Self-described "liberal" John Moore argued in the National Post left-wing media bias is "one of those gut things conservatives feel but can never prove." The conservatives' collective "guts" are onto something. Ryerson University professors Marsha Barber and Ann Rauhala explored the demographic and political leanings of Canada's television news directors. The results of their survey were published in 2005 in the Canadian Journal of Communication. The researchers found the news directors, the people "with the most direct responsibility for programming the news on any given day," were more politically and socially liberal than the rest of the Canadian population. Broken down by network, those working for the CBC were the most left-leaning. Barber and Rauhala's findings echo researchers David Pritchard and Florian Sauvageau's survey results from years earlier. Regarding Canadian TV journalists, they found most felt the news organizations they worked for were "slightly left of centre" when it came to political outlook while they themselves were ideologically more left-leaning than their employers. Other peer-reviewed studies have shown the personal values Canadian journalists hold and the ideologies they subscribe to influence the coverage they produce. In their 2003 Donner Prize-nominated book, 'Hidden Agendas: How Journalists Influence the News,' Lydia Miljan and Barry Cooper show strong evidence of this link. They found when it comes to reporting on issues connected to social values, Canada's national journalists regularly "slant" their coverage in order to privilege liberal views over socially-conservative perspectives. When the researchers turned their attention to TV news alone they found coverage by the CBC was most harsh against conservative positions. For the last few years I've been examining the national news media's relationship with evangelical Christians a group well-known for its highly conservative social values. In one study, published in the Journal of Communication and Religion, I analyzed 11 years of national TV news reports featuring those on the religious-right. Like Miljan and Cooper, I found evidence of negatively slanted coverage. Journalists, particularly those working for CBC TV, used omission, exaggeration or misrepresentation of information to present conservative Protestants and the positions they held in the worst possible light. There are more examples from my own research and the research of others that leads me to personally support the launch of Sun TV news. Canada needs journalists and news outlets as diverse in their values as Canadians themselves. When it comes to TV news in Canada, a move in the "right" direction is also a move in the correct direction. (Haskell is Associate Professor of Journalism at Wilfrid Laurier University's Brantford campus and author of 'Through a Lens Darkly: How the News Media Perceive and Portray Evangelicals')"
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How about a look at Sun Media's own St.Catharines Standard, and its inbred inherently-Liberal friendly attitude? Isn't there a slanted, biased editorial and reporting stance at this media outlet?
The St.Catharines Standard - also known as The Jim Bradley Liberal Fan Club - can always be counted on to sympathetically portray Good Ole Jimmy, no matter what the circumstances; stories of provincial relevance and local impact, which might not cast Jim Bradley's Liberal Party in a favourable light, mysteriously (and predictably) happen not to mention MPP Bradley, as if somehow, Jim's politics are not involved!!
Gosh: often, Jim Bradley just can't be found in the St.Catharines Standard! When it comes to media scrutiny and accountability, Liberal Jim Bradley gets off easy over at the St.Catharines Standard.
(...contrasted to when Jim was in opposition - and everything in the entire planet - as Jim would eagerly have Standard reporters and readers believe - somehow was ultimately Mike Harris' and Ralph Klein's fault.)
We just had G20 riots on Toronto's streets fomented by pretend laws being passed by secretive Liberals - and not one story in the St.Catharines Standard interviewing our secretive local MPP, Jim Bradley, asking our provincial member of parliament to explain in detail his Liberal government's actions - THERE WAS NOTHING from, or about, Jim Bradley AT ALL!
Where was Jimmy during the riots?
What was Jimmy's reaction to the riots as they unfolded?
As a McGuinty cabinet minister, when did Jim Bradley first know that the G20 fence law was being incorrectly interpreted - and applied - by Toronto Police Chief Blair?
Why didn't Jim Bradley, or his colleague Bartolucci, or Ontario's Premier Liberal Liar, Dalton McGuinty, publicly clarify this disastrous so-called 'mis-understanding' of their 'secret law'?
Why - as far as the sheeple of St.Catharines are concerned, Jim Bradley - as pure as the [global-warming-melted] snow - had nothin' at all to do with any of this!!
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